Issue No. 88
October 2, 2018
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This investigative report is so long and detailed that I had to split it into two newsletters. Please read today's newsletter as it sets the ground work for the disturbing financial expose I will publish tomorrow.

In today's issue....

  • A Lot of Republicans Are Also Disgusted By Dr. Hotze and His Toxic Influence on GOP Politics

In tomorrow's issue....

  • Where Did the Money Republican Judges Paid to Hotze's Hate Group Actually Go?
Real Journalists Should Investigate How Republican Judges Are Funneling Money to Hotze's Hate Group

I am a full-time lawyer and only a part-time journalist. Real news organizations need to look into the facts and questions uncovered in my story in this issue and tomorrow's issue about how Harris County Republican judges are giving money to a politically powerful and hateful bigot, Steven Hotze, and his partner in anti-LGBT insanity, Jared Woodfill. Judges are paying money to a mysterious company that Woodfill and Hotze apparently partly own even as Woodfill is appearing in front of those same judges as a lawyer and being appointed by those judges to CPS cases where the county pays Woodfill's fees. Go ask those judges if they are disclosing to the attorneys who oppose Woodfill in their courts that there is a business relationship between the judges' campaigns and a company Woodfill apparently co-owns.

There have been news stories and blog posts about Hotze's oversized and malignant influence on local GOP politics. But, no journalist has so far delved deeply into how money flows between Hotze's various PAC's, how his influential slate mailer is paid for, or where payments from judges to Hotze actually go. My two part article published today and tomorrow attempts to unravel and explain the tangled financial web of hate involving Hotze, Woodfill and most of the Republican judges in Harris County.

I started this project by trying to find out if the judges were making illegal contributions to Hotze's political action committees (PAC). I realized during my investigation that some of the judges did not know exactly where their checks to Hotze ended up. But, I did conclude, based on the limited information I was able to uncover, that the judges' payments were not illegally made to a PAC.

However, what I did learn poses just as serious questions about judicial ethics and the integrity of our judicial system. I am also now really curious about why these judges are paying money to Hotze's and Woodfill's company and what exactly they get for those payments if they are not paying for inclusion in Hotze's slate mailer. I have spent dozens of hours on this investigation, and I still have more questions than answers.

I am glad my headline is not "REPUBLICAN JUDGES MAKE ILLEGAL DONATIONS TO ANTI-GAY HATE GROUP PAC." However, the fact remains that these judges are supporting a monster of a bigot and a hate group and that alone probably violates the Texas Code of Judicial Conduct. Canon 1 says a judge should participate in establishing, maintaining, and enforcing high standards of conduct and should personally observe those standards so that the integrity and independence of the judiciary is preserved. Canon 2 says a judge shall comply with the law and should act at all times in a manner that promotes public confidence in the integrity and impartiality of the judiciary.

These judges are sending money to a man who has said that homosexuals should be run out of the state and denied basic civil liberties and, according to several national publications, advocated the death penalty for homosexual conduct. In fairness to Hotze, click here to read a 1994 article where Hotze denied (sort of) that he has called for executing gays. In this interview, Hotze told the reporter something that makes his denial less than definitive:

Hotze says that when he's been asked about imposing the death penalty for homosexuality he's always given the same reply. "The only thing I've ever said is that I'm a Bible-believing Christian, and the Old Testament says that it is a capital offense for a man to lie with another man, as he would a wife," he says.

I do not lightly suggest that family court judges I practice law in front of are doing something improper. I like and respect Judges Moore, Prine, Schmude, Dean and Lombardino. But, the judges should not be financially supporting Hotze at all, and they should not be doing business with a company apparently co-owned by Jared Woodfill even as he practices in their courts and while they appoint him to cases where they approve county-paid fees for Woodfill.

I hope I have a little credibility when it comes to investigating judges. My investigations published in this newsletter helped bring down Galveston County Judge Chris Dupuy, who was indicted, removed from office and convicted for perjury involving me and this newsletter. My investigation into Harris County District Judge Denise Pratt led to her resignation to avoid criminal charges arising from witnesses I found for the District Attorney. The entire system of appointing lawyers in Child Protective Services cases in Texas was reformed because of my investigation into Gary Polland (another GOP slate mailer) and the huge amounts of money he was paid by Harris County on CPS cases and the fact that Polland sometimes billed for more than 24 hours in a day on cases.

Hotze may well try to explain my attacks on him by saying I am a liberal Democrat. Yet, I am publicly supporting other Harris County Republican candidates, such as Judge David Farr and District Clerk Chris Daniel (neither of whom financially support Hotze or Woodfill).

I try my best to be fair and accurate in my reporting. I have emailed the five judges involved, Woodfill and Hotze repeatedly asking them for information and documents. Woodfill and three judges replied but their e-mails only caused me to wonder more about what was really going and why.

As a result of my e-mails to judges last week asking a lot of questions, one judge had to admit she made mistakes in her campaign finance report and promised to amend her report.

Remember, I am a lawyer who only handles family law cases and half of my cases are pending in Harris County - many before the five judges mentioned in my article below. I know full well the ramifications of my reporting, but the truth is the truth and above all else, we need judges who are not politically beholden to hateful bigots or financially supporting their campaign of hate.


Book Review: A Girl Stands by the Door by Rachel Devlin

Lawyers should be interested in Rachel Devlin's A Girl Stands at the Door . This book recounts the legal strategies, trials and appeals across the country in the late 1940's, 1950's and early 1960's to desegregate schools in the United States. The book highlights the heroic roles of young women in these lawsuits.
The NAACP Legal Defense and Educaton Fund (LDF) needed individual plaintiffs to sue school districts and universities, and the LDF often found black girls to be the most appealing clients. These young women and their families risked their lives to seek desegregation and the tales of what they endured are chilling. This is what happened when three six-year-old black girls were allowed by court order to attend McDonough Elementary School in New Orleans in 1960:

“I do remember going to the school,” she [Leona Tate] says. “I was scared. Crowds of people saying all kinds of things. If they could get to me, I thought they was going to kill me.”

If the crowd outside was both amazed and incensed to see the girls walk through the entrance at McDonough, the principal and staff were apparently in shock that the girls had actually arrived. The girls were made to wait outside the principal’s office for hours. To the six-year-olds, “ it felt like an eternity.” Tessie started to practice tumbling in the hall. “It was like they did not know what to do with us,” Prevost Williams recalls. “People would pass us; they were looking at us, but then it was also like they were overlooking us- like we were invisible.”

The McDonough Three, as they would come to be known much later, were finally assigned to Mrs. Meyer’s class. But the day continued on its bizarre and nightmarish course as their fellow students began to disappear, one by one. “All of a sudden you see children disappearing. Someone would come and just snatch a child out of the classroom,” Prevost Williams remembers, “By the end of the day, Ruby Bridges found herself to be the only student in the school.”

At McDonough, cardboard was hung in all of the windows. The girls were forbidden to play outside, so they played instead under the stairwell. Mrs. Meyer was “incredibly supportive,” and they had fun eating lunch in a different empty classroom every day. Walking the gauntlet of screaming protesters each morning remained a challenge but eventually, Prevost Williams says, “I was able to just tune that out.” Echoing Ada Sipuel’s words to the press in 1949 almost exactly, Prevost Williams explains, “I wouldn’t even hear [the] person.”

The bigger difficulty for the girls was when they went home. The hate mail became so overwhelming- for the McDonough Three and for Bridges- that all letters were diverted from the girls’ home to the NAACP‘s offices so that members could sift through them first. The death threats came in many forms, some of them darkly creative. According to Dorothy Prevost, a hearse, or “dead wagon,” drove up and down her street every day for months. She lived in constant fear. “Every morning after she leave, I say a little prayer. I say, ‘Lord, take care of my baby. Take care of my baby. Be with her. Stay in school with her.” She became so anxiety ridden, she stopped eating. Eventually, she says, “my dresses went way down to my ankles.” Her boss at the factory, a Jewish man, she carefully explains, quietly told her to take some time off and come back when she was ready.

None of the four girls were allowed to go anywhere outside to play except their backyards.
Today, in 2018, it is hard for most of us to imagine how bad things once were in this country not that long ago. When a young woman used the LDF to sue the University of Oklahoma for admission to the law school, the state quickly established a separate three room law school for the woman in the state capitol. When six African-Americans then sued for admission to the main O.U. campus, the college realized they could not set up that many separate colleges, so they allowed the black students in but kept them segregated within their classes. One photo shows a black student sitting alone in a corner of class in an area literally roped off from the white students.
America has come a long way in many respects. This issue of my newsletter is mainly focused on Houston Republican politico and bigot, Dr. Steven Hotze. Hotze's hateful and shameful words toward the LGBT community are pretty identical to what bigots in the 1950's were saying in public about African-Americans and what Hitler said about Jews in the 1930's.

Perhaps some of my Republican friends will read this book and feel inspired to stand up to the bigoted and hateful Hotze. At least maybe my judge friends can stop giving Hotze large sums of money and seeking his support.

Click here to order this book from Amazon.
I may not win every case (even if in my heart I expect to). I just want an efficient system in which my client gets a fair hearing before a judge who works hard, knows the law, and does not play favorites. I also expect judges to appoint qualified amicus attorneys who zealously look after children (and who actually personally visit their minor clients in their homes). Is that asking too much? Stay tuned.
 
Greg Enos
The Enos Law Firm

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Hotze and the Judges Part 1:
A Lot of Republicans Are Also Disgusted By
Dr. Hotze and His Bigotry and Toxic Influence on GOP Politics
To understand why it is a big deal that most of our judges are giving money to Steven Hotze and seeking his support and endorsement, one first needs to understand who Hotze is and what he stands for.

I am not alone in my disgust of Dr. Steven Hotze. There are plenty of Republicans, even very conservative Republicans, who disagree with Hotze and believe his homophobic crusade of hate actually hurts the Republican Party in Harris County (and is not very "Christian").

Click here to read the complete post on Big Jolly by David Jennings from
September 2016 about Hotze entitled, "Racism, Homophobia, Lying: Welcome to Harris County and the supporters of John Schmude."

As you will read in my next issue tomorrow, Judge Schmude gave $10,000 this Spring to Hotze even though he did not have a primary opponent. Schmude would not have come out of no where and won the 2014 Republican primary over two far more qualified opponents if it were not for the strong support of Dr. Hotze.

Mr. Jennings, a staunch Republican (who graciously lets me know how often he disagrees with me on most national policy issues) received an e-mail from Hotze during the 2014 Republican primary promoting Schmude and suggesting that Schmude's GOP opponents, Melanie Flowers and Meca Walker, were liberals, Democrats, black, and supporters of lesbianism. Hotze wrote in part in his email:

Both of his [Schmude's] opponents promote in their campaign material that they are members of Alpha Kappa Alpha, an African American sorority that is rabidly pro-abortion, pro-lesbian, and radical left in its ideology. John Schmude’s opponents are liberal Democrats who are running as Republicans because they know that only Republicans have been elected to the family courts in Harris County over the past 22 years.

Jennings wrote about this e-mail from Hotze and subtly suggested that Hotze was appealing to racist and homophobic prejudice. Jennings e-mailed Hotze about his disturbing e-mail. Dr. Hotze called Jennings, who recalled this from their conversation:

To his credit, Dr. Hotze called me back. The first question he asked was, “Are you a homosexual?” You might say it went downhill from there. I found it interesting that during the very, shall we say loud, call, he didn’t bother with the racism or false attacks on abortion but almost entirely on homosexuality.

Jennings then e-mailed candidate Schmude about Hotze's e-mail. Schmude replied by saying he was not responsible for what Hotze did, although he considered Hotze a friend and admired his work standing up for constitutional liberties and fighting for conservative principles and values.
Jennings was not shy in his article about how he felt about people like Hotze:

Sometimes it is tough being a Republican. But it is never tough standing up for what is right. I believe that all people are made in the image of the Creator. As such, I believe that all people should be able to participate in the public arena, and that we should make our judgements based not on the color of someone’s skin, not on their sexual orientation, not on false accusations of their positions, but on the content of their character, their qualifications for the job, and on their true positions on the issues.

It is interesting to note that Melanie Flowers is this year a Republican nominee for a Harris County Family Court and Hotze endorsed Flowers over Alyssa Lemkuil in the GOP primary this year. Apparently, Ms. Flowers has managed to convince Hotze that she is no longer a liberal Democratic in favor of abortion and lesbianism.

Republican-to-the-core Mr. Jennings, finished his column with this inspiring note:

Near the end of my conversation with Dr. Hotze, he told me that I didn’t have big enough balls to stand up to the secular homosexual agenda. I told him that I had balls big enough to stand up to him. I didn’t tell him this but I’m also strong enough to love him as my brother despite our differences because we are both created in the image of God.

Writing like this by a principled Republican who actually lives what Jesus taught inspires me with hope for our Republic. Mr. Jennings and I disagree on many issues and candidates, but I still admire his principles and basic goodness. We can disagree as a Republican and a Democrat but not hate each other or besmirch each other's love of our country or basic human rights.
Republican David Jennings: political columnist, Mayor of Shoreacres, BBQ Wizard, proud grandpa.

People have been pointing out what a hateful and bigoted person Hotze is for years. Click here to read an interesting 1996 profile of Hotze that mentions his PAC, Conservative Republicans of Harris County and his less than "Christian" campaign tactics. In this article, Hotze was called out for falsely accusing a Republican candidate of being pro-abortion when she was just as anti-abortion as he was.

Click here to read the 2013 profile on Hotze in the Encyclopedia of American Loons which describes Hotze, in part, as follows:

Steve Hotze is a wingnut crackpot who runs a big, lucrative practice in suburban Houston focused on “nontraditional therapies” and treatments for allergies, thyroid problems and yeast infections. He is particularly known for promoting natural progesterone replacement therapy for women, a treatment that can hardly be said to be particularly science-based.... In 1986 Hotze was one of dozens of ministers, professionals and laypersons who signed the Coalition on Revival’s Manifesto for the Christian Church , expressing his commitment to the following doctrines:
- A wife may work outside the home only with her husband’s consent
- “Biblical spanking” that results in “temporary or superficial bruises or welts” should not be considered a crime.
- No doctor shall provide medical service on the Sabbath (yup – it’s all for your benefit).
- All disease and disability is caused by the sin of Adam and Eve.
- Medical problems are frequently caused by personal sin.
- “Increased longevity generally results from obedience to specific Biblical commands”.
. . . .
Indeed, Hotze also runs a PAC known as Conservative Republicans of Texas , which he uses to push “health freedom” bills in Texas – that is, facilitate the promotion of questionable therapies and outright quackery without fear of government involvement or legal responsibilities.
. . . .
Diagnosis: An extremely dangerous, quite (perhaps unintentionally) evil person, whose efforts to undermine civilization, promote denialism, and fight reality are almost staggering. We’ll deem Hotze to be one of the most objectionable people in the US, and that’s quite an impressive feat.

The Off the Kuff political blog in November 2009 said this:

Steven Hotze is a hatemonger. For nearly twenty five years he has stoked the flames of bigotry in this community like no other local politico.... Hotze continues vehemently to espouse his brand of extreme intolerance. For example, he regularly insists that the death penalty is fitting for homosexual conduct. And in 2008, he insisted, without one iota of evidence, that gays and lesbians were devoted to “recruiting sexually confused adolescents into their lifestyle.” Hotze’s bigotry and extremism are not confined to homophobia. His anti-women beliefs are evidenced by his strident insistence that “a wife may work outside the home only with her husband’s consent.”

(Quoting attorney Gerry Birnberg)(Note: Hotze has denied that he is in favor of executions of gays - see above).

Click here to read a description of just how unhinged Hotze was in August 2015 when he spoke at his own “The Faith Family Freedom Tour,” rally against homosexuals. Swinging a real sword as he spoke, Hotze called it "God's sword" and he warned his audience of "Homofascists," who were enabled and appeased by those who treated their behavior as normal or acceptable. Hotze said the homosexual indoctrination started in public schools. “Remember: Homosexuals can’t reproduce. They have to recruit.” Hotze declared.

“Drive them out of our city. I don’t want them in our city. Send them back to San Francisco.” "The homosexuals are hate-mongers," Hotze said at this event. "They hate God, they hate God's word, they hate Christ, they hate anything that's good and wholesome and right. They want to pervert everything." These words could have been said by Adolf Hitler about Jews in the 1930's. Yet, our elected Republican judges still seek this evil man's endorsement and contribute to his political organization?

Hotze made international headlines in October 2016 when he spoke at a conference in Dallas and alleged that gays were like termites and had been sent to America by Russians to destroy our country. Click here to read a Dallas Morning News story about this astounding claim. It includes a video of Hotze making this crazy statement. This hateful nut job is who are family court judges are supporting and financing?

The Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups of all kinds, from neo-Nazi's to the New Black Panthers, explained its criteria for designating an organization as an anti-LGBT hate group:

Anti-LGBT groups on the SPLC hate list often link homosexuality to pedophilia, claim that same-sex marriage and LGBT people, in general, are dangers to children, that homosexuality itself is dangerous, support the criminalization of homosexuality and transgender identity, and that there is a conspiracy called the “homosexual agenda” at work that seeks to destroy Christianity and the whole of society. Viewing homosexuality as unbiblical or simply opposing same-sex marriage does not qualify an organization to be listed as an anti-LGBT hate group.

There are many "Christian" and conservative groups in Texas who oppose equal rights for the LGBT community. But, only one such group in Texas has been listed as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center -- Hotze's and Woodfill's Conservative Republicans of Texas.

Hotze is joined at the hip to former Harris County GOP chair Jared Woodfill in their campaign of hate against the LGBT community.
Woodfill is still pursuing a five year old lawsuit against the City of Houston in Lisa Millard's court trying to end health benefits for same-sex partners of city employees. One wonders what motivates Hotze and Woodfill to pursue their righteous crusade against gays and transgender people.

On a 100% totally unrelated subject, click here to read about a 2012 article in Journal of Personality and Social Psychology entitled, "Homophobes Might Be Hidden Homosexuals." This analysis of implicit bias and explicit sexual orientation statements explains the underpinnings of anti-gay bullying and hate crimes. This article concludes that homophobes who are most hostile toward gays and hold strong anti-gay views may themselves have same-sex desires, albeit undercover ones.






On an equally unrelated topic, Mr. Woodfill has persistently asked me to disclose that the photo below used in my last issue was slightly altered. That photo we improved with Photoshop really seemed to have bothered Jared. On a similar vein, while I suspect Woodfill has been to a few midnight showings of Rockie Horror Picture , the photo above was also slightly altered. Click here to see a video of the glorious "Let's Do the Time Warp Again" number from that classic musical about a transvestite space alien.
We all need to put the word out about these nasty bigots our Republican judges are financially supporting and kowtowing to and then shame them and ridicule them. Rules for Radicals: A Pragmatic Primer for Realistic Radicals , the classic 1971 book by community activist and writer Saul D. Alinsky, provides 13 rules to promote positive change in a community. Rule 5 was: "Ridicule is man's most potent weapon." In fact, from this day forward, my readers should assume that any photo of Jared Woodfill in this newsletter has been doctored to make fun of him and his homophobia.
Sadly, the bigotry and hated that Hotze and Woodfill espouse are not at all funny.

The judges who seek Hotze's endorsement and who give money to his hate group (or the company he apparently co-owns with Woodfill) should be ashamed of themselves. I would say this to each of those judges: It does not matter how fair or wise you are as a judge on the bench, nor does it matter what else you achieve in your legal careers, nothing you do or have done will wipe out the disgraceful stain on your legacy caused by your support of this hateful, dangerous bigot. You should not seek Hotze's endorsement, benefit from his support, or pay him money. Shame on you!

These judges are not state representatives or county commissioners, they are judges with an ethical duty not to discriminate and to be impartial. They must in all their actions preserve the dignity and integrity of the judicial system. These family court judges hear cases involving gay spouses and transgender children and adoptions by same-sex couples.

Hotze is not just a radical conservative who I disagree with. His own words and actions over decades prove he is a mean, prejudiced, dangerous lunatic. The judges simply should not support and pay money to such a foul bigot who so publicly wants to harm, drive off, and demean the LGBT community.

If Hotze were attacking and threatening Jews, Muslims or the physically disabled like he does gays, no judge would dare send him money or seek his endorsement. These intelligent judges cannot pretend they are not aware of the hate Hotze spews toward the LGBT community.

My article tomorrow addresses how and why these judges, to their shame, send money to Hotze and benefit from his political support.
Hotze and the Judges Part 2:
Where Did the Money Republican Judges Paid to Hotze's Hate Group Actually Go?

Stay tuned tomorrow for Part 2!
In tomorrow's newsletter, I will expose the flow of money between Hotze's two Political Action Committees and his slate mailer that endorses Republican judges. I will also investigate where the money paid by our GOP Judges to Hotze actually goes and what they appear to get for it.
As a result of my investigations this past week, Judge Sheri Dean realized she needed to correct her campaign finance report. It is illegal for a judge to give to a Political Action Committee during a primary election. Conservative Republicans of Texas is one of Hotze's PAC's. His other main PAC is Conservative Republicans of Harris County. The two PAC's spend a lot of money every election to mail out a slate mailer that lists the candidates Hotze endorses. Most of those Hotze endorsed candidates, including five family court judges, made payments to Hotze in February or March 2018. Who actually received those payments is rather surprising.

Note that on the sample ballot mailed out by Hotze this Spring, he marks those Republicans who he feels support "the homosexual political movement."
If today's article was upsetting to those who care about basic human rights, my article tomorrow will really upset everyone who cares about the integrity of our justice system.
Thank you for your support! Together We Can Make Our Profession Better and Our Courts More Fair
Attorney Greg Enos has been through his own divorce and child custody battle (he won) and understands what his clients are going through. Enos graduated from the University of Texas Law School and was a successful personal injury attorney in Texas City before he decided his true calling was to help families in divorce and child custody cases. Greg Enos is active in politics and in Clear Lake area charities. He has served as President of the Bay Area Bar Association and President of the Board of Interfaith Caring Ministries. The Enos Law Firm serves clients in Galveston County, Brazoria County and Harris County, Texas.
Greg Enos
Board Certified in Family Law, Texas Board of Legal Specialization
The Enos Law Firm
281-333-3030
www. divorce reality.com
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